Hoyer: This Is the Most Fiscally Irresponsible Administration in American History

WASHINGTON, DC – House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (MD) released the following statement this afternoon after the Bush Administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced its Mid-Session Review of the Budget, which revealed enormous projected deficits for budget projections for Fiscal Year 2008 (which ends September 30) and Fiscal Year 2009:

“Today’s budget projections by OMB are simply further evidence that the Bush Administration is the most fiscally irresponsible Administration in American history. Let no one be mistaken: The vast majority of this record deficit is attributable to policies enacted by the former Republican Majorities in Congress and signed into law by President Bush.

“Even after the terrorist attacks on 9/11 and corporate scandals rocked our economy, President Bush confidently proclaimed: ‘[O]ur budget will run a deficit that will be small and short-term.’ He was absolutely, unequivocally wrong – as he has been on so many of his economic predictions over the last seven and one-half years.

“It is clear that the Administration's fiscal recklessness is a legacy that threatens to haunt this and future generation of Americans. Democrats believe that we must arrest the dangerous deficits and spiraling debt that have been instigated by the Bush Administration policies, and that one of the surest ways to do that is to abide by the pay-as-you-go budget rules that we reinstated on our first day back in the Majority.

“This is not solely an issue of dollars and cents. It is an issue that affects our national and economic security, as well as our nation’s future.”

George W. Bush inherited a projected 10-year budget surplus of $5.6 trillion, which he proceeded to turn into a projected deficit of more than $4 trillion. When President Bush took office in January 2001, the Congressional Budget Office projected a surplus of $635 billion in 2008 and $710 billion in 2009. Now, OMB projects deficits of $389 billion and $482 billion in those years, respectively – a swing of more than $1 trillion in each year.